It started with a .....

CUSHION

No that's wrong...

It actually started with lots of little squares.

 and many itty bitty seams.

 Which magically became 2 cushions, as is often the case.

Closely followed by OOing and AAHing and the request for a quilt.

More squares and stitching.

Indeed, lots of stitching.

and hey presto...

A matching single bed, size quilt was made.

SNUGGLE-UMPTIOUS!

But our tale has a sad ending, sniff, sniff.

One little cushion was left behind and all alone in the world. (Oh NO!)

So in true 'Bagpuss' tradition Fi gathered it up and took it to her shop.

Just in case someone should come along one day and be in need of pretty patchwork cushion.

The End

x

Radiance Shawl.

 This was my New Years knitting project.

A delicate, lightweight shawl for myself. 

I've never knitted a shawl before but then I've never had need of a shawl before. 

In fact the last time I wore a shawl was when I was 13 years old and a bridesmaid for my auntie. My dress was jade green which I was none too keen on and I had a white woolly shawl (which I'd forgotten about until now) as it was a March wedding. I was going to post a photo of me a la bridesmaid but unfortunately I only have old fashioned paper photos and they're up in the loft somewhere and I'm sat in front of the fire two floors below. I could heave myself off the comfy sofa and away from the cosy fire and go and search them out for your perusal but...we both know that's not gonna happen. 

Anyway I digress. Now being the wrong side of 40 I feel a chill sometimes and thoughts of woolly Cranford-esk shawls are starting to appeal mightily.

I have to say, I did enjoy making this one. The pattern is from Ravelry and is called Radiance Shawl by Helen Stewart. I'd bought the yarn (merino and silk) at the Knit and Stitch Show in Harrogate last year. All the details of the yarn and pattern can be found here. It was very straight forward and the pattern is written so that you can tick off each row as you do it and it also tells you how much you have completed as you go along. 
Easy-peasy.

How about a bit of patchwork next time?
Gosh! Listen to me...woolly shawls, patchwork quilts, you'd think I was getting ready to hibernate!

Till next time
love Fi x

Goodbye Gilbert, from snow to sunshine.

 Goodbye Gilbert...safe journey my little cheeky chap.

 My little felted gnome has been cut up, stitched up and wrapped up...  

and is now on his way to Australia.

I wonder what he'll see at the other end of his journey? I guess it won't be snow though!

Fi x

Woolly Toadstool and a Wink

Well I thought I was on the mend but apparently not...but we won't dwell on it, I'll just apologise for my absence, I'm feeling much more myself now so we're back to normal bloggy service...hopefully. As you can see above Gilbert the Gnome has now been machine embroidered and finished with a little hand embroidery. 

 I enjoyed creating this little toadstool.

 I'm just waiting for a delivery of red spotty lining fabric to make Gilbert into a bag for Hilary. I may be waiting a bit longer than usual as there is a lot of snow about here in the hills.

Somebody else who seems to be a bit under the weather...Cluck. Poor old girl. Wonderful Man brought her in from the cold today to see if we can perk her up a bit. We've left her next to the radiator in the kitchen huddled down in a bundle looking very sorry for herself. 

Fingers crossed she'll soon be feeling better.

I hope you are all keeping cosy and taking care in the ice.

love Fi x

Wet felted, wool painting.

Debbie:: Don't read this until after the 25th if you want your wall hanging to be a surprise!

:::

Hello my lovelies. How are you doing? All ready for Christmas? Is the house decorated, the pantry full and the gifts wrapped?

Well I think I could say yes to most of those questions, still a couple of things left to wrap but the job I'm most pleased about finishing is my felt wall hanging, for the very, lovely Debbie.

A rather long one this one. Well longer than I've ever contemplated before. In fact Wonderful Man  had to help me dismantle my work table in the attic and bring it down to the kitchen where we reassembled it end to end with our dining table to give me a work space long enough.

And this is how it ended. Work table dismantled once more and reassembled back in the attic so that I could embroider and embellish in my usual surroundings. Wet felting is an untidy business, well it is the way I do it. I think the whole family is happier when I'm back in the attic, lol.



One of the most difficult parts of this commission was to try and work out how much the felt would shrink. Not enough and I would have to trim it to size, which in turn would mean losing the lovely natural wiggly edges.

Too much and the piece would be too small and I'd have to start over again! God forbid! It took me about seven hours to lay out the Merino wool for this one and then I wasn't sure about it so left it overnight and came back to it the next morning with fresh eyes.



Next what seems like an afternoon of soapy water and much vigorous rolling and roughing up.

Then I have a day or two's break while the felt is left to dry naturally.

Out comes the sewing machine next and my box or should I say boxes of threads. Tricky is a nice word to describe how difficult it was at times to manoeuvre this around under my domestic sewing machine. There are other words but tricky is the one we'll use today.

Hand embroidery and scrummy sparkly bits are next. You can't beat a little bit of twinkle here and there.

One of the good parts follows. Slip stitching the backing fabric and casing onto the reverse. I luuuuurve slip stitching.

Finally, balancing on a chair to fit all of its 62 inches into the viewfinder.

Gloriously happy!

That's how it makes me feel to look at it finished and ready to be carefully wrapped. It's at this point that I remember how much I enjoyed every single moment of making it.

Merry Christmas to you all

and

I hope you'll join me in 2013 to share in each others creativity.

Love Fi x 







Hello from the Hills.

 Hello from the hills.

 Looks lovely doesn't it? Hmm, this was before it snowed, lol.

 I'm not going to show you pictures of the snow, it's not pleasant. No, it's cold and icy and smelly in my opinion. Smelly pants that's what I think to the snow.

Sneaky dog and I know what to do when it snows.

Cosy up and reach for the knitting basket. A couple of fat roses waiting to adorn one of my chunky tea cosies. Talking of chunky tea cosies... 

Thank you all for your best wishes for my Christmas craft fair, it went really well. In fact I had to dash and take this piccy for you as I'd already sold 3 of my larger items and I wanted you to see it before anything else went.

The atmosphere was fab and the staff at the venue were very helpful and most importantly kept us supplied with tea all day. I met some lovely people and even came away with a commission or two. Best of all I got to spend the day chatting with my lovely friend Anne who had the stall next to me. Sorry for the lack of photos, too much going on.

Time to go. Lots to do. A new felt painting underway. The contents of the loft to empty and sort. The contents of the loft to repack before number 1 comes home from uni with the contents of his digs. As well as fitting in an overnight visit to my parents. It's going to be a busy week.

Till next time, whenever that is.

love Fi x

A revamped suitcase and an egg.

Hello my lovelies. How are you today, I do hope you are all dry and cosy. My heart goes out to all those poor people who have been flooded up and down the country this week. That's one consolation about living on top of a steep hill, you may be gasping for breath by the time you've walked home but we're safe from flooding.

Anyway I digress. A big thank you goes out from me to you for the Boxing Hares love on my last post. You are all so important in my creative journey. I don't know quite where I'd be without your feedback and encouragement, so thank you for sharing with me.

I don't know if you've noticed while you've been reading but the photo above is of the top of the chest of drawers in my hallway. The chest holds the families hats and scarves etc, all the stuff you need to grab on your way out of the front door. On top of the chest is all the usual paraphernalia you might find on a hallway chest, telephone, my purse, a tape measure, junk mail, a lamp, sunglasses and of course because this is the MarmaladeRose household, a sewing machine, a vase of knitting needles and plenty of dust. Nothing surprising there then, but what caught my eye was the newly laid hens egg next to the measure tape. Why is there one brown egg sitting on my hallway table? Who knows! Just one of life's little mysteries I suppose. I didn't move it. No I just left it there for who ever might come back for it. I hope someone does come back for it!

 Something new to show you... my first attempt at knitting a lacy shawl. Because my laptop has died, it's taken a little while to rescue my picture files from it, so I'm only just getting around to show and tell with this one.

It's made from a pretty blue sock yarn that I bought from a local wool shop and the pattern is from Ravelry.com. I'm a little disappointed at its size, I thought it would be a little larger than it is. On me it 's even smaller than on the mannequin as I'm quite a lot fatter. But I did enjoy making it...I may have another go. A little hank of yarn followed me home from the Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate last week ;)

 Changing the subject again, I have been invited to take part in a Christmas craft fair on the 1st Dec. Panic! Panic! So I thought this old suitcase might come in useful for displaying some of my goodies. Obviously it needed a little TLC as its been stored in my parents loft for the last umpty-something years. I know this because it was full of mine and my childrens primary school art work. Parents do keep some junk, don't they.

 It had been lined previously with some old wall paper which I ripped away to uncover this rather unpromising stripy grey stuff. So out came the glue and an old out of date map of the Lake District that I picked up in Kendal for £1.

 Tadaa!

I've also added some old luggage labels to the outside and I must say it looks almost too good to hide under my craft stall stock!

Talking of the craft stall, I better get back to it. Still lots of stitching to cram in before the weekend. I'll just leave you with this photo that I took as wonderful man circumnavigated this HUGE puddle that covered one side of the road. Someone has sense of humour, the life buoy...nice touch. Made me laugh!

love Fi x

PS. Would the lovely Hilary who emailed me about commissioning her very own Gilbert the Gnome bag please email me again as I no longer have your email address since my laptop died. The special 'safe' file that I stored it in seems to have vanished!